I/O Port

02 December 2016

I once ran out of space
for buffers in a program on the PDP-11, so I re-used some of the stack
space above main()s entry for extra scratch space, and then made sure
main() never returned. There was a bunch of memory (over a kilobyte!) at
the top of stack containing the environment and command line arguments,
so that was space I didn't need once I started. So long as I scanned
them and stashed anything of value before I needed to use the space,
anyway.

But later it turned out I needed the environment back
when I wanted to run another program so the first thing I did was
write() the environment to a file, and then when I called anything I
read() that file back into place between the fork() and exec().﻿

28 November 2016

A rare post, and a rarer topical one without any snark or attempts at humor.

Hillary Clinton and her team
is NOT 'pushing for', 'supporting', or otherwise taking part in the
effort to have any states electoral results audited and/or recounted.

They
are going to participate in any recounts that occur, and they pretty
much have to simply because their opponents are going to be involved.
But to claim that this means they're part of the push for
recounts is at the best misplaced enthusiasm.

The post starts out by rejecting the necessity of a special effort to recount these states, and repeats that, good and hard, with details as to why it's not necessary, for several paragraphs. Then it finally makes the most lukewarm announcement possible that now that a recount has been initiated they will participate, and if a recount happens in the other states, they will participate there as well.

Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of
hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not
planned to exercise this option ourselves, but now that a recount has
been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure
the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides. If Jill
Stein follows through as she has promised and pursues recounts in
Pennsylvania and Michigan, we will take the same approach in those
states as well. We do so fully aware that the number of votes separating
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the closest of these
states — Michigan — well exceeds the largest margin ever overcome in a
recount. But regardless of the potential to change the outcome in any of
the states, we feel it is important, on principle, to ensure our
campaign is legally represented in any court proceedings and represented
on the ground in order to monitor the recount process itself.﻿

That's all. Participation, if and when recounts occur, to cover their legal behinds.

What does this participation entail?

According to the New York Times, this won't involve any material support, but be limited to paying for the presence of their lawyers to monitor the process.

This is basically the minimum level of engagement they could possibly take. This is hardly a reversal. It is not support for Jill Stein's efforts. It is not endorsement nor is it pushing for the recount.

Now... they may take a stronger position on the recount in the future, but as of the morning of the 28th of November, 2016 this is as far as they have gone.

07 February 2016

1. The Republic/Empire is a robust Kardashev level II civilization,
and not a young one. It's got a LOT of civilized worlds, and is clearly
heading for KIII classification. Blowing up a whole planet didn't
kick off a depression. Analyzing the resources of a civilization like
that using assumptions based on our civilization is like Pliny the
Younger looking at the possibility of building an aircraft carrier based
on the resources of a slave-based economy and deciding that sinking a
single vessel would collapse the world's economy.

2. The Death
Star is not productive infrastructure. It's sunk costs. Any economic
impact it has is in the past. If maintaining the production lines for
the Death Star have a positive impact on the economy, then blowing it up
to keep the lines flowing as you build another one is probably the best
thing you can do. Of course those same production lines can be used for
building, I don't know, modern housing for Jakku scavengers instead.
Point is, there's no benefit to the Galactic economy from the continued
existence of the Death Star.

3. They make a big deal about the
amount of steel involved. That amount of steel is basically lying around
in nickel-iron asteroids for the taking in any "dirty" system with a
lot of small body matter. That whole part of the paper is like Pliny
calculating how many slaves would be needed to dig up the iron ore for
the aircraft carrier I mentioned two paragraphs back.﻿

05 November 2015

The moon's albedo is actually quite low. The Earth is significantly brighter, thanks to the clouds and oceans... which are shiny enough that there's a visible highlight in the center of the disc from the sun directly behind the spacecraft. So in this image, with the brightness adjusted for the larger planet, you get to see the true color of our dry, airless companion world.

I've spent the past couple of days desperately trying to puzzle out the purpose behind Google's newly announced Nexus 5X and 6P smartphones. [...]

One word. Updates.

Google, our knight in shining armor and a propeller hat, has come to
save us from the evils of perfidious carriers, ugly Android skins, and
late software updates.

I wouldn't mind late software updates. I mind not getting them at all. If you get a flagship phone, it might get updates for a year or two. Then I guess you're supposed to buy a new phone. If you get a mid-range or entry-level phone? You get Bollocks.

There isn't a single Android device manufacturer that is happy with the Nexus program, and I've spoken with them all.

Have you asked them about updates?

Motorola went all-out with the Moto X Pure
this year, seeking to deliver the cleanest possible Android experience,
best possible specs, and lowest possible price, all while operating
independently of carrier interference.

Now they're no longer owned by Google, let's see how they do with updates. If they keep them up, I'll consider getting one. There's a lot of things I really dislike about Nexus phones. Like the lack of SD card slots, which more or less force you to depend on the Google cloud.

Android phone makers have grown more conscientious and restrained.

Except when it comes to updates.

There is no Android villain left for the Nexus crusader to slay.

Updates.

Making Android profitable for Android phone makers is one of the great challenges of our time.

I'd be happy with a spec-for-spec replacement for my Nexus 4, with an SD card slot. Is that hard to do? The Nexus 5X is more than I want. I was looking at Chinese phones shipping with plain old AOSP or Cyanogen, because I knew the community could support them even if the manufacturer couldn't.

I wish Google would recognize that and try to do more to support Android as a whole rather than just its own good name.

With the phone manufacturers undercutting it all the time, by releasing phones that never receive a single update, they kind of have to.